Special Education Court Cases

Before the 1960s, students with disabilities usually did not have the same opportunities as those without disabilities. Parents were beginning to take a more active role in their child’s education and beginning to question why their child with a disability could not be educated in a public school setting (Friend, 2014, p. 11). Because parents began speaking up for their child’s rights, several important decisions were made. In the case Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1972), it was decided that children with intellectual disabilities would value from a free public education that was “tailored to their needs” (Friend, 2014, p. 11). In the same year, the decision was made again in the court case Mills v. Board of Education that all students must be educated regardless of their educational needs and that there would be a special process to determine eligibility (Friend, 2014, p. 11). This is also the court case that set special guidelines for resolving issues between schools and parents. Two other cases that helped define and shape our special education laws today were the cases of Diana v. State Board of Education of California in 1970 and Larry P. v. Riles in 1972. Both of these cases concluded that special education tests should not be discriminatory based on race or language

Both of these laws provided states with more funding to develop satisfactory “educational opportunities for students with disabilities” (Friend, 2014, P. 12). Finally, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was amended in 1975 and became the Education of the Handicapped Act. This act is still in place today; however, we know this act as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA (Friend, 2014, p.